Yearning for Love by Toye Lawson Brown

one second. She had been thinking about calling Walker but decided against it.  Based on her statistics, the odds of her having a successful relationship with Walker, on a scale from 1-to-100, fell into negative numbers.  He’d be better off playing the field, rather than settling for an emotionally damaged woman carrying a perfect percentage rate for failure.
    She held the phone to her head.  She hadn’t talked to him in weeks on purpose, and now Patty was telling her this. Pretending to sound surprised, she raised the level of her voice an octave. “Get out—he doesn’t want me.”
    “He stormed my office demanding I give him your information or he was going to camp out on the front steps of your apartment building.”
    She rolled her eyes upward visualizing what a disaster that would have been if certain nosey neighbors called the police about a strange man hanging around. “Well, maybe he changed his mind and decided not to come since I haven’t heard from him.”
    “I doubt that.  He was adamant about finding you.”
    “If he went to my apartment, he saw I wasn’t there.  He also knows I don’t have the shop anymore.  Walker should have called me and arranged a day and place to meet like we discussed over the phone.”
    “He knew you wouldn’t agree to him coming to Columbus.  Nicole, if you’ve been in contact with him, I have to know before he has his heart broken again.  Is there any chance you’ve changed your mind about him?”
    Nicole cradled the phone against her ear. “As much as I respect Walker and enjoy talking to him on the phone, my answer is still the same.  I’m not interested in dating anyone.”
    “Dang it Nicole, why are you so stubborn?”
    “You wouldn’t understand, Patty.  Walker will thank me for this in the long run.”
    “ All right, I tried and I can’t make you be with him.  But be kind him if he does find you and you do tell him you aren’t interested in dating him.”
    The support line blinked indicating she had a call waiting.  “Patty, I have to go.  My other line is ringing.  I will call you if he does show up.”  She hung up pressing the button to connect the second line.  “This is Nicole.  Will your call require user support, IT, or applications?” She never understood why she had to ask that questions since she did it all anyhow.
    “How long are you working tonight?”
    “I’m here until eight this evening.  Anything else I may assist you with tonight?” She asked in a fake but pleasant voice.
    “Nothing at the moment, I’ll call back if I run into trouble.  Thanks.”
    The caller hung up before she could give the emergency after-hours number. “Great, he will call two minutes before I get off, and it will take me hours to fix whatever he trashed on the computer,” she said huffing. 
    Standing to stretch the numbing kinks from her legs and back; she looked out the window that overlooked downtown Columbus.  The cold weather was relinquishing the winter grip on Columbus to make way for green grass, blooming trees and colorful flowers.
    The setting sun winked at Nicole through the spaces between the white blinds.  Her mind drifted to the night Walker invited himself to crash the night in her hotel room.  She remembered falling asleep while he was showering but waking up with his hard body pressed against hers.  When he got into her bed, she did not know.  If they did anything, she was sure they hadn’t.  What she could recall was her brain screaming she was in bed with a man…a strange naked white man.
    Though she remained dressed in her red negligee, and grateful it was not turned inside out, Walker was naked; at least the portion of his body that was visible above the bedding.  Curious if he were totally naked, she couldn’t resist the urge and peeked under the cover.  She was disappointed but thankful he’d been a gentleman and kept on his underwear.
    Nicole’s stomach rolled with flutters from her trip down memory